A King's Cards
by Fire Red Fox Queen
Summary: What if Haou was made into a super-rare card for duel monsters by some unknown person about fifty years after Jaden Yuki disappeared from duel academy? It was locked down by Pegasus, but could it really remain a secret forever? An OC story with a possible couple of exceptions.
1. Horus Trinam

**What if Haou was made into a super-rare card for duel monsters by some unknown person about fifty years after Jaden Yuki disappeared from duel academy? It was locked down by Pegasus, but could it really remain a secret forever? An OC story with a possible couple of exceptions.**

* * *

Horus Trinam threw his cards and duel disk to the ground in anger. Why couldn't he ever win? He always tried to get all of the good traps and spells, the strongest monsters. What was it that always made him lose? In another fit of rage, he tore off his Slifer red jacket and tossed it over the edge of the cliff he was standing on. The jacket fell a ways down before making a slight splash in the ocean below.

Only after he did it did he realized that he'd have to pay for another one, and his parents were too cheap to cover it. Well, at least helping out in the card shop had its perks. The pay was pretty decent, so he'd be able to buy another one no problem. But that meant not being able to buy that poster of Yugi Motou that he wanted so bad.

Growling in frustration, Horus bent down and gathered up all of his cards and put them back into his duel disk and reattaching the disk to his arm. Once that was done, he slouched back towards Duel Academy, not looking forward to telling Cady and Randy about the newest humiliating defeat he had.

Several hundred feet below him, a dark aura was emitted from a card laying face-down on a pedestal. Three demon cards around it pulsed once, then everything returned to normal.


	2. Cursed?

Cady Whiting was shuffling idly through her cards when she heard Horus slam the door to his room, which was right next door. Another loss, huh? She placed her cards back into her holster and decided to go calm him down for Randy's sake. Horus tended to be a little violent when he was mad.

Clouds were rolling in quickly across the sky, and a sharp burst of cold air chilled Cady to the bone. When had it gotten so cold? Cady just shrugged and ignored it. There was always weird weather around Duel Academy. That was just a minor downside to having an elite duel school on an island.

She paused in front of Horus' door before knocking. Horus had to be really close to expulsion by now. If he didn't start winning a lot of duels and fast, there was a good chance that he was going to lose for good here. Maybe it would be better just to let him be.

Then she shook her head. Horus was going to take his anger out on Randy again if the small red-head came in before he calmed down. Cady brought up her fist and banged on the crappy, thin-as-paper door three times. She knew that Horus heard her, but it was a while before the door finally creaked open and Horus' weird hazel eyes glared out at her.

"What do you want, Cady?" he asked venomously.

"So how was your duel with Corissa?" Cady asked, pretending not to know how his duel with the Ra student went.

"How do you think?" he snapped. He backed up to let her in, then shut the door behind her. Cady patiently sat on the bed while Horus paced around the room running his hand through his long black hair and muttering to himself.

Eventually, he remembered that Cady was there and started talking to her.

"I just don't get it, Cady. What is it about me that makes me lose all the time? Am I cursed? Am I just too dumb to duel? I get all of the stuff they talk about in class, I get all of the most powerful cards, but I still lose." As he was talking, his voice rose and rose until Horus was practically yelling.

"Last week, I got beat by five Ra students and pretty much every other Slifer besides you and Randy, and I didn't even duel you two! Every single time, I'm taken down without a fight and I just don't get it! I don't even get how I even made into this school at all since I suck so bad! The _only_ reason I'm still around is because I do volunteer work around here that no one else wants to do. One more loss, and I'm through!"

He collapsed onto the bed next to her and put his hands over his face. Cady felt awkward and had no clue what to do, but decided to try anyway. "Tell me what happened in the last couple of moves in the duel. Maybe I can tell you what you did wrong," she suggested. To be honest, she wasn't really expecting him to answer, but her surprise, he did.

"The last couple of turns won't help you much, but whatever. Corissa only had her Warrior Mole out on the field."

Cady almost cracked up. Warrior Mole? Wasn't that one of the weakest duel monsters in existance? Unless... Horus continued to talk, confirming Cady's suspicions.

"Or, at least, so I thought. It turned out that she threw down a face-down while I was distracted by her insults. When I ordered my Pteradactoyl to attack her, guess what card was laying face-down? Warrior's Sacrifice! When her mole was destroyed, so was my Pteradactoyl. And since his attack points were 3200, my remaining 2000 life points were wiped out thanks to that damn trap card's effect!"

Cady couldn't think of much else to say other than _Well, why didn't you pay more attention to the game than your fragile ego?_ But she didn't say it. Instead, she suggested that Horus play a practice duel with her just to see if she couldn't find what he was doing wrong.

Horus agreed, but didn't think it would do much good. And he turned out to be right. All of his moves were powerful, but Cady was always somehow one step ahead, and she couldn't figure out why. Horus was doing everything right, but Cady always seemed the right card at the right time to save herself.

The only thing the practice duel accomplished was making Horus even more ticked off and Cady more confused.

In a last ditch effort to calm the steaming Slifer, Cady suggested watching more of the dueling tapes that they stole from the old school archives. They found the stash of tapes on accident, really. Horus was just really lost on his first day at school and found an old broom closet marked "Archives."

It turned out that Duel Academy had recorded all of the major duels done by the best students in the history of the academy's past. That meant that some of the tapes were about a hundred years old. It was a miracle that they could still be watched. Still, it was kind of weird. All of the tapes ended at fifty years ago. No more new tapes had been made since then.

But then again, maybe that was better. Horus probably couldn't fit over a thousand tapes into his tiny closet. It was bad enough with just under five hudred. A couple of them had to be hidden in drawers and under floorboards. There's no way any more could've fit.

Cady's only condition was that they had to wait for Randy, because he liked to watch the videos even more than Cady and Horus did.

Thankfully, Randy was back about five minutes later. "Hey, Horus, how was your-oof!"

Cady slapped her hand over the small red-head's mouth and shook her head. Randy got the message and shut up.

"Hey, Randy? What took you so long? We were about to start the next duel video without you, man!" Horus called from the fridge. His mood improved since Cady came over, but one mention of his most recent failure might send him over the edge again.

"Ugh, Ms. Randolph made me stay an extra ten minutes past the end of detention because she said that I wasn't scrubbing the chalkboards well enough and told me to redo most of them even though they were already clean. I swear, she hates my guts!"

Horus stopped raiding the fridge and came over to sympathetically pat Randy on the back. "That's what you get for falling asleep in her class, I guess!" he laughed. "Now, come on, I want to see how the duel between Alastair York goes against Richard Ford."

Cady fiddled with the TV before settling into a chair. Horus and Randy were already laying on their bunks, impatiently waiting for the tape to play.

A fuzzy image finally appeared, showing two Obelisk students about to face off. "Duel!"

The duel was long, and about halfway through (which was about seven thirty-ish at the time), a loud crash of thunder announced the start of a vicious storm.

A few minutes after that, a downpour started. The sound of the rain hitting the roof of the Slifer dorm was so loud that the three friends couldn't hear the duelists on the tape anymore. They cranked up the volume, and ignored the strangeness of the storm outside.

Blue lightning was flashing rapidly, and repeatedly struck the island at certain points. The clouds were completely black. Not dark grey, but black. The wind was howling mournfully. Anyone listening would've said that it sounded like someone crying.

But just as fast and as suddenly as it came, the storm faded and disappeared like it was never there. A full moon shone with a white light from above, lighting the night brightly and stars winked from their usual places. It seemed like the storm was like a ghost. There one second, gone the next.


	3. The Next Morning

The next morning, the mysterious storm was the talk of the school. That saved Horus from humiliation, at least for now. As the three Slifers walked into class, murmurs could be heard. "Lightning almost stuck the Obelisk dorms." "Wow, really?" "Scary." "Do think that there might be more of those storms coming?" "I hope not."

Horus leaned in towards Cady. "What are they talking about?"

"Apparently, that storm last night. Something must have happened to spook them. Dunno, and quite frankly, don't care. I happen to love storms. They're probably just being wusses," she shrugged, yawning. The duel that they watched last night was a record-breaking (at least for Cady, Horus, and Randy) three hours long. Horus wanted to know how they could manage to stand for three hours on end. He hated standing for five minutes.

So, naturally, by the time the duel was over, it was late. Ish. Actually, it wouldn't have been bad if Randy didn't want to duel Horus to see if he could figure out the older kid's problem. That turned into a competition between the three that lasted until about one in the morning. Cady had to drag herself back to her room, and Horus just fell asleep on the floor. Randy face-planted on his bunk before being completely knocked out cold.

All conversations ended when Mr. Warner entered the room and started his lecture on trap cards. Cady, Horus, and Randy all promptly fell asleep, later earning them a detention. Again.


	4. A Mysterious Intruder

Fortunately for Horus, he had work and could ditch detention for the evening. But he did have to go the next day because he didn't have work to use as an excuse.

Miss Sadie Richardson worked Horus like a dog after hearing that he had another detention. As her own form of punishment, the old woman made Horus sort all of the new cards. Then she made him start stocking the shelves, all the heavy stuff that she couldn't handle herself because it would strain her back.

By the time that Horus got off work around five thirty, his hands hurt and he was exhausted. Who knew it took so much effort to run a card store? It took all of Horus' remaining effort to drag himself to his dorm and open his door. But all of his exhaustion vanished the second he saw someone in the room already. Randy wasn't supposed to be back from detention yet. Besides, the intruder was much larger than the tiny Slifer.

And Horus thought that he was hallucinating at first. Maybe he was too tired. Because the person in his room was a duel monster. A half-dragon/human hybrid. What was it called? Yubel.

She was sitting on Horus' bed, staring silently at the object in her clawed hands almost mournfully, apparently oblivious to Horus' entrance. He blinked, and she was gone. But the thing she was holding onto wasn't.

Curious and reasonably freaked out, Horus walked forward in a bit of a trance and picked up the boxy thing that Yubel had been holding. It was one of his tapes!

Horus checked the side of it, sure that Cady had put the movie back last night, but maybe she forgot. "Jaden Yuki vs. Zane Truesdale?" he read aloud. That was definitely not the tape he was watching last night. Horus already dismissed Yubel as an exhaustion-induced hallucination, but how had the tape gotten out? Maybe there really was an intruder, but who?

A monstrous yawn interrupted his thoughts and Horus shrugged and put the old video back into place under one of the loose floorboards before collapsing onto his matress and falling unconscious.


	5. Powerful Cards

_"I activate...Super Polymerization!"_ Those words echoed through Horus' mind as he shot awake, panting at a nightmare he couldn't remember. Those four little words were all that he could recall. For some reason, they gave Horus a deep sense of dread.

It was still night outside, and the clock read midnight. Horus just shrugged, rolled over, and went back to sleep.

What he didn't know was that his eyes shone gold in the light of full moon.

Several thousand feet below, a bright flash of light was seen and all four of the cards being held in the underground cavern disappeared.

* * *

Cady woke from her sleep as if in a trance. Her eyes were glazed over, and it was clear that the girl wasn't in control of her actions as she stumbled out of her room. Down the stairs of the dorm Cady went, wandering vaguely in the direction of the dormant volcano in the middle of the island.

* * *

Randy woke up a few seconds after Horus had fallen back asleep after his nightmare to the sound of Cady's door creaking open, then slamming shut. He wondered what Cady was doing up and decided to go ask. Or maybe someone was breaking into her room to pull a mean prank. It wouldn't be the first time a Slifer got hit hard with cruel jokes from the Obelisks and Ras.

He slid out of his bunk, checking to make sure Horus was still asleep. The black-haired teen was still snoring away, and Randy briefly thought about waking Horus up in case someone attacked them, but decided against it.

He slid out of the door and softly closed it behind him before padding over to Cady's room. The door was still slightly open, which was weird. Quickly coming more bemused by the second, Randy pushed the door open all the way to show Cady's empty cot. Where did she go?

At that moment, he turned and saw Cady at the edge of the woods. Randy wanted to call out to her, but didn't want to wake anyone up. He settled for running after her. But when he got into the trees, Cady disappeared. One second, she was right in front of him and the next, she was gone.

Randy called her quietly, but there wasn't an answer from the female duelist. Worried, the red head wandered deeper into the trees, soon getting lost in the dark.

* * *

An Obelisk student stood in front of the abandoned dorm, staring at it curiously. He had only come out here at night on a dare, but now he wished that he was back in bed sleeping. The old dorm looked like it was on the verge of collapse, and it was said to the most haunted place on the island. He didn't want to go inside, at least not at night.

But a sweet singing voice told him otherwise. The language was unfamiliar, and much like a siren. It drew the entranced student into the shadows of the abandoned Obelisk dorms.

* * *

When Cady snapped out of her sleepwalking, she found herself at the top of the volcano, which bubbled menacingly below her. "What the...?" she asked, wondering just how the heck she came to be on top of the massive hunk of rock in the middle of the night.

Before she could turn to leave, she spotted something sitting on an outcrop of rock about a foot away. Cady gingerly walked across the gravelly ground, small rocks jabbing into her bare feet. How had the pain not woken her before?

Cady reached out for the card that was almost out of reach...her fingers just managed to grip a corner. She brought it down and read it. "God Flame Emporer Uria? It's a really powerful card." A big grin lit her face. "Wait till I tell the guys about this!"

* * *

Randy found himself out on a cliff overlooking the sea. (It was the very same cliff that Horus threw his jacket off of, in fact.) There wasn't any sign of Cady anywhere. He sighed, and was ready to go back to his room when he saw something glimmer in the moonlight near the edge of the cliff.

Normally, Randy would've ignored it and kept going, but something made him turn around and go to investigate. He swooped down and snatched up the shimmering card. "Descending Thunder Emporer Hamon, seems like a really valuable card. Who would just leave this laying around? I better hold onto it..."

* * *

The Obelisk woke up the moment the song ended. He glanced around to see that he was surrounded by decaying walls and cobwebs and the musty smell of old houses. He didn't remember coming into the old dorm, so how did he get there?

His thoughts were put on hold when he noticed a card sitting on a splintered window sill. What card was sitting in a condemned dorm like this? He picked it up and read 'Phantom Emperor Ravel.' His eyes were also drawn to the ten stars across the top of the card and the 4000 attack and defense points. A smile cracked his grim expression. "Guess coming here wasn't such a waste after all," he said, pocketing the card.


	6. An Unwanted Refusal

**Thank you to ChillingShadow and Kaixing for favoriting this story, and Ecrilthir for following. And was this fast enough for you, ChillingShadow? :D**

**Sakura Yagami, thanks for reviewing as well. I hope you continue to think that this story's good.**

**A general note to all: I was going to post this with the next chapter, but I decided not to do that since my next chapter's taking a little bit longer than I'd hoped. That's because there's a duel involved, so it's going to be a really long chapter. Plus, I have figure out what cards to use and invent some of my own so the duel doesn't last all of two seconds. It's a slow process for me, so it may take a bit. But I don't think it'll take a horribly long amount of time to sort it out.**

* * *

Horus woke up with a headache the next morning at nine fourty-five. There was no sign of Randy. "He's up this early on a weekend?" Horus groaned. "I'd rather sleep for two more hours, but I have to be at detention at eleven or I'm toast."

He staggered to his feet and rifled through the cupboards until he found a decent brand of cereal.

He was still eating breakfast when Randy and Cady came crashing in a second later. "Horus, we have something cool to show you!" they cried, each holding out a card. "They're awesome..." "Just one more move, Cady..." "Oh, you would've lost, Peanut Butter Breath. I had you right where I wanted you..."

"Uh, guys? Mind telling me why you're acting like you just had fifty Pixy Stix? Because I'm pretty sure neither of you are this hyper in the morning. Or anytime really."

That's when the two remembered that Horus was in the room. "Well, I don't know what really happened to me. When I woke up, I was at the top of the volcano. But before I came back here, I saw a card just laying around, so I picked it up, and it's totally amazing. It has to be one of the most powerful cards in Duel Monsters history!" Cady cried.

"Let me see," Horus commanded. Cady handed the card over and waited for his shocked reaction. She wasn't disappointed.

"Wha-? You're telling me this was just found laying around? Why would this card be at the top of a volcano?! This is amazing! With this card, it would pretty much impossible to lose!" Then he fell silent. Cady and Randy knew what he was thinking. He was jealous that he didn't find one and he was the one who really needed this kind of break, considering his dueling record. Being undefeated in losing wasn't a good thing.

Randy took pity on Horus and offered up his card. "This isn't mine anyways, and I don't really need it. You can take it."

Horus wanted to accept Randy's offer, he really did. So badly, in fact, that he was almost shaking.

In that moment, he wasn't even aware of what he was saying. It was like he was hearing himself speak on the opposite side of a long tunnel.

"It's fine. You found it, you can keep it," Horus said. He wanted to punch himself! Why had he said that? Of course he wanted the card! But Randy didn't extend his offer again, and Horus didn't want to seem like a jerk. So he sullenly finished getting ready for his detention as his friends went back to admiring their new cards.


	7. The Duel

**Well, here it is. It took a bit longer than I hoped, but it's long and it has a duel in it with some very familiar cards... Thank you to Erstine 13624 for favoriting, and to Celiyan for following. Also, the reviews are very much appreciated. Thanks so much you guys, and enjoy!**

* * *

Horus walked into Mr. Warner's classroom about an hour later. The room was dark, and there was no sign of the teacher anywhere. Horus was already in a bad mood about missing out on finding powerful cards, but having to come to detention and then finding the room empty wasn't helping any.

He sighed in frustration, then turned and walked back out into the hallway. Maybe he heard the time wrong. Maybe something happened to Mr. Warner. Horus secretly wished for the second option.

After waiting for ten minutes outside the room, Horus was about ready to go back to the dorm to sleep some more, but Mr. Warner had chosen that particular moment to show up. "What are you doing, Mr. Trinam?" he asked. "You should be in detention with me. You're ten minutes late!"

"Um, sir, I've been here the whole time. I didn't know where you were so I was waiting for you."

"Don't you ever listen?" Mr. Warner asked annoyingly. "Didn't I tell you that your detention was going to be held in the dueling arena today?"

_No,_ Horus wanted to say. _If you did, don't you think I'd be there? I don't sit outside classrooms for the fun of it._

Somehow, he managed not say it, but didn't risk saying anything else either in case it slipped out.

"I thought so," Mr. Warner said in disgust. "Come on, boy." The infuriating man spun on his heel and lead the way to the dueling arenas. Horus followed, muttering obscienties under his breath.

As he walked, Horus wondered what sort of detention he was going to have in the dueling arenas? Maybe he'd have to sweep it or something. It was definitely going to be harder mentally than it was physically. All Horus needed to do was stand in the room and remember all of his failures to feel completely depressed.

There was someone else waiting for them at the arenas. Obelisk Cane Morrison. "I thought that you were ditching detention, slacker," the blonde sneered.

"What are you doing here, Morrison? Get caught trying to bribe another teacher?" Horus retorted. He really wasn't in mood to deal with the older kid's crap.

"You wish. I'm here to kick you out of school for good, scum!"

"Yeah, right."

"No, he's quite right," Warner cut in, making Horus look up at him in alarm. "I've decided on your detention, and it's gotten approval from all of the board members of this school. You have to duel Mr. Morrison here. If you win, then your detention ends and you continue your miserable little existance here at the academy. But we all know that won't happen, right Mr. Trinam?" Horus gritted his teeth. "When you lose, you'll be expelled from Duel Academy!"

Horus wanted to claim that this was cruel and unusual punishment, but he knew it wouldn't get him anywhere. Besides, it might be better if he just left. Obviously, he didn't belong in the prestigious duel school if he couldn't even win once. He climbed up onto the arena and faced Cane, fully prepared to lose and lose badly.

Mr. Warner handed Horus a plain white duel disk and the Slifer reluctantly slid the device on his arm. Thankfully, Horus always had his deck with him so at least he didn't have to duel with a random deck too.

Without looking, Horus took his deck out of its holster and rammed it into the duel disk. "Duel!"

"My turn," Cane said. He drew a card and added it to his hand. "I play Hydrogeddon (lv.4/atk:1600/def:1000) in attack mode and end my turn." It was clear that Cane wasn't expecting any challenge. He was just messing around.

Horus drew, then noticed something. Something important. This wasn't his deck! Horus' deck contained prehistoric monsters, not Elemental Heroes! Oh, well. Now wasn't the time to be worrying about it much.

"I play Elemental Hero Bubbleman (lv.4/atk:800/def:1200) in attack mode! By his effect, when he's the only monster out on my side of the field, I'm allowed to draw two more cards." Horus paused briefly to do so before continuing. "And now I play Bubble Shuffle. This card allows me to switch Bubbleman and Hydrogeddon to defense mode. Once I do that, I can sacrifice my Bubbleman in order to summon Elemental Hero Neos (lv.7/atk:2500/def:2000) in attack mode!" It was funny watching Cane's jaw drop to the floor. A level seven monster, and it was only Horus' first turn.

"Neos, attack his Hydrogeddon!" The alien duel monster dove forward, slashing at the water monster. The Hydrogeddon dissolved.

"I think I'll end my turn there."

"Don't get too cocky, trash! Just because you managed to get a good monster into play doesn't mean it'll stay there long! My draw!"

At that particular moment, Neos disappeared. "What the-?" Horus cried in surprise.

"Ha! looks like your monsters are smarter than you are! I summon Oxygeddon (lv.4/atk:1800/def:800) to my side of the field in attack mode. Then I play Monster Reborn to call back my Hydrogeddon in attack mode (lv.4/atk:1600/def:1000). Oxygeddon, Hydrogeddon, attack this moron directly!"

Horus doubled over as the apparations passed through him, dropping his life points to 600.

"Damn it!" he muttered, still feeling the phantom ache in his chest. He glanced at his hand, but didn't see much help there. The only monster he could summon was Burstinatrix, but she wasn't going to be much help. Might as well just give up the duel now, before he embaressed himself again.

But before he could, a small voice seemed to drift out of his deck. "Kuri!" Horus couldn't explain it, but he felt that he should hang on for a while longer.

"Your turn, Slifer!" Cane called obnoxiously.

Horus drew, and it was just the card to even things up a bit. "I summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix to the field in attack mode (lv.3/atk:1200/def:800)."

"Let me guess. You're going to attack my Oxygeddon and destroy your own weak monster in order to make yourself look slightly less pathetic when you lose," Cane said, sounding bored.

"Actually, no," Horus replied, a sudden smirk crossing his face. "I'm going to play a little card called 'Burst Impact!'" Burstinatrix produced a wave of flame that raced over every inch of the arena, destroying Cane's Hydrogeddon and Oxygeddon.

"You see," Horus started, very amused at Cane's expression. "I can play Burst Impact only when I have Burstinatrix out on my side of the field. But, when I do play it, it destroys every other monster on the field except for my Burstinatrix.

"That's not even the best part. You take three hundred points of damage for each monster destroyed!"

Cane groaned as his life points dropped to 3400. "And just when you think I'm done, I still have Burstinatrix's attack! Go, Burstinatrix, attack him directly!" That brought Cane's life points all the way down to 2200.

"I'll also place one card facedown to end my turn," Horus finished, sounding awfully smug. This had to be the closest he had ever gotten to winning a duel.

"Just because you took some of my life points doesn't mean I've lost!" Cane yelled, trying to regain some pride. He drew a card. "I play Tidal Shark in attack mode (lv.4/atk:1700/def:1200). Tidal Shark, take out his Burstinatrix!"

"Not so fast there, Cane," Horus said, revealing his trap card. "I play Hero Barrier, which blocks your attack."

"Tch. I end my turn."

"Good." Horus drew a card. "I summon Elemental Hero Avian in defense mode, then play the spell Polymerization! Using it, I fuse Avian and Burstinatrix to call Elemental Hero Flame Wingman in attack mode (lv.8/atk:2100/def:1200)! Wingman, attack with Sky Dive Scorcher!"

When Horus said that, he got a brief flash of deja vu, as if he had already done this a million times. It vanished a few seconds later, and Horus just dismissed the sensation.

Flame Wingman easily destroyed the shark. Cane's life points took a hit and dropped to 1800. "That all you got, Slifer?" he asked, regaining his cockiness.

"Nope," Horus answered, getting a look of surprise from the Obelisk. "When Flame Wingman destroys a monster, the attack points of the destroyed monster are taken directly from your life points."

"What!" Cane exclaimed as a wall of fire smashed into him. Only one hundred life points remained.

"Fortunately for you, I can't do any more damage to you for now, so I end my turn."

"In this next turn, I'll bring you down!" Cane promised, drawing. He froze when he saw his hand. There was nothing that could help him! The monsters he had were too weak, and all of his spells and traps were useless without the proper monsters and conditions. He decided to bluff.

"I place one card facedown and end my turn." He watched Horus carefully. For a minute, Horus looked like he might not attack. Cane hoped against hope that Horus wouldn't catch onto his trick.

But then, Horus got over his hesitation. "Wingman, attack Cane directly with Sky Dive Scorcher!" Cane fell to his knees as his life points took the final plummet.

"How could I be beaten by a Slifer?" he asked.

Horus was about to say a witty reply when he was interrupted by Mr. Warner, who Horus forgot about completely until that moment. "Horus Trinam, you're expelled!"


	8. Psych!

**Okay, sorry for making you wait a bit longer than usual. I'm sure all of you were like "WTF(udge) was that?!" for the last chapter. And my answer is...well, you'll see. Anyways, just as a warning, things may slow down a bit, but I promise to keep my updates coming as fast as possible. School is a real pain when it comes to free time. There really is none.**

**I dunno. This chapter kinda struck a weird chord with me. Not sure why, but it doesn't feel right. But there are a lot important details, so I'm keeping it how it is. Thanks for that last review, and I'd like to thank TheViewer for following and Slimboy97 for favoriting.**

* * *

Horus couldn't say anything. How could he, after hearing that he was expelled? All he could do was stare at Warner in shock. Didn't the man say that he would let Horus stay if he beat Cane? And unless this was all some stupid daydream, didn't he just beat said Obelisk? Just then, Horus' salvation came through the exit of the observation room just above the arenas.

Principal Vronica Rita, Sadie, and a few other teachers stepped out and Horus shot a look over to them, worried that they were going to confirm Warner's words. What he didn't expect was, "What are you talking about, Warner? He duelled wonderfully just now," Principal Rita said pleasantly. "We should be rather proud to have him as a student."

_That's going a tad overboard,_ Horus thought, sweat-dropping. Still, at least he knew that he wasn't going anywhere. At least, not for now.

Christa Monroe, his dorm leader, came over and slapped him on the back in congratualtions. "You should be proud. You just beat an Obelisk student. Do you know how long it's been since that's happened?" she chirped proudly. "Well, I'd image it's been over thirty years, right, Sadie? You were here at the time, weren'tcha? That one kid who was in Slifer, but beat pretty much anyone he ever duelled?"

She turned to face the card shop owner, who was the only one who wasn't standing around Horus or Cane. Sadie seemed to just be watching the whole ordeal with a suspicious look. Horus couldn't help but notice that she was particularly staring at his deck. Then she snapped out of her trance.

"What did you say, Christa?"

"I asked how long it's been since one of the Slifers beat an Obelisk in a duel."

"Let's see. I think the last time was nineteen years ago. You know, that one with the freckles and the red hair."

"Oh, really? Who was the one with the weird two-toned brown hair?" Christa asked.

"Ah, Jaden Yuki? We were about the same age at the time, so I think around fifty years ago, maybe a little more."

"That's the one. Ever find out what happened to him? A duelist like that had to have a professional career, right?"

"No," Sadie answered quietly. "No one ever saw him after graduation. He disappeared."

"Well, that's just a crying shame!"

"Where did you get that deck?" Sadie asked suddenly, addressing Horus.

"Wh-"

"It isn't his deck! He clearly borrowed that deck from a friend, that's why I'm saying that he should be expelled! This duel is void!" Warner's voice yelled.

Everyone turned to see the composed Vronica Rita standing patiently in front of an agitated Warner, who was now pacing back and forth for emphasis. "He should've used his own deck."

"And just where do the rules say that?" Rita asked, sounding amused.

"W-well..."

"That's what I thought. Just keep this in mind, Mr. Warner," she said as she turned away. "Just because duelists have a bond to a deck doesn't necissarily mean it has to be the first deck they have. Or even the tenth or twentieth. It is the deck that duelists are destined for that they share a bond with."

Warner looked confused, but he didn't say anything else. Principal Rita walked over to Horus and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you go back and celebrate your victory, hm? I'm sure your friends will be happy to hear about it."

"Thank you, ma'am!" Horus said quickly before taking off. For some reason, the way that Sadie was staring at him was making him freaked out.


	9. Slifer Pro: Jaden Yuki

**Thanks again for all the support. Oh, and this is addressed to whoever sent my last review. (Dunno who since it's recorded as guest.) You are so close. There's a small hint in this chapter that I mention. See if you can figure my plan out from that.**

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Jaden Yuki. That name was familiar. Where had Horus seen that name before? He thought about it long and hard before realizing that he was just standing outside of his room. Horus shrugged his questions away and drifted inside.

Cady and Randy were nowhere to be seen, probably duelling with their newfound cards somewhere. Horus sighed and sat down in a rolling chair before shuffling through his new deck. That brought up another question. What happened to his old one, and how did this one get in his room? Okay, so it was more like two questions.

And the deck itself was weird. Elemental Heroes were a type of deck that was supposed to have died out several years ago. Their production was stopped and the only way to get the cards were to buy or trade them with someone who was willing to get rid of them. Horus never even heard of "Neospacians" before, and a lot of the monsters weren't very strong. Some of the higher-level monsters were, but that's to be expected. The thing that seemed to give the deck most of its firepower were the Polymerization and Fusion cards mixed in with the monsters. But, more than anything, Horus felt like it was..._familiar._ Like he duelled with this deck before many times.

There was one card kind of sticking out of the top of the deck awkwardly. Horus made a move to look at it, but something stopped him. His fingers wavered over the card for just a moment until Horus remembered seeing the name Jaden Yuki. It was one of the names of the duelists on the misplaced tape yesterday.

Horus dropped to the floor and pulled up the loose board. Underneath it were about five tapes. Horus picked them up and glanced at the sides. All of them were tapes of various duels involving the same kid: Jaden Yuki.

Curious, Horus slid one (Jaden Yuki vs. Aster Phoenix into the VCR, turned on the TV, and sat down to watch it. A fuzzy image came onto the screen, showing a Slifer with dual-toned hair about to duel with with the famous silver-haired teen pro duelist.

Horus watched as an intense duel unfolded. Despite the obvious difference in standing (Slifer vs. Pro), Jaden managed to put up a pretty good fight. He used an Elemental Hero deck, one with the same monsters as Horus'. Horus took the cards out of the deck holder and shuffled through them again. Was this Jaden's deck? How did it end up with Horus?

And there was still the issue of the Neospacians. What were Neospacians?

The duel ended pretty much as expected. Jaden was beaten by Aster. But anyone would admit that Jaden held his own admirably. That was probably the longest that Horus had ever seen someone from Slifer make it in a duel against a professional. The TV screen went black, and Horus went to get up to eject the tape.

All of a sudden, it started running again. It was a different duel this time, but between the same two people. Horus dropped back onto the couch and watched as they went at it again. This time, Jaden seemed to duel with a renewed enthusiasm and he had some new cards added to his deck. The Neospacians.

This time, it was Jaden who was victorious. How was it possible for a Slifer to win against a pro? Horus suddenly felt that his victory against Cane was insignificant.


	10. Discovery

**Okay, first off, I deeply apologize for disappearing forever. I promise you, all my projects came to a screeching halt, not just this one. There really isn't a good reason for that. Just know that I'm slowly regaining a slow writing pace.**

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The next few days returned to some semblance of normal. Horus attended (and slept through) class, went to work, and watched duel tapes with Cady and Randy. He never did tell them about what he saw on the video, because they'd get mad that he watched it without them.

Sadie continued to watch Horus suspiciously. Horus vaguely wondered what made the old woman hate him all of a sudden, but he didn't ask and she didn't tell. He had the feeling that it had something to do with his new deck.

Speaking of, he had some time before Cady and Randy came back from yet another detention. This one was for...too many tardies? Horus would've shared the same fate, but he recently started helping Sadie in the mornings as well as the evenings, and she always made sure that he got to class on time.

Anyway, Horus finally had some time to go through his new deck. He sat cross-legged on the floor and sorted through each card. The deck kind of seemed all over the place. There were Elemental Heroes and Neospacians. Most of the spells and traps were used specifically for certain monsters or for fusion summons. But then there were also a couple cards that were kind of random.

One of those cards was Yubel, the duel monster that Horus thought he saw in his room a while ago. The other was split. It reminded Horus of Change of Heart, but it wasn't. One side of the picture showed a bright, happy kid with brown hair and brown eyes. The other was an armor-bearing, stoic-looking, golden-eyed warrior. The card was simply called "Supreme King." Supreme King of what? What made it even weirder was that the attack points were undetermined.

Horus looked at the special effects. Using this card seemed like it would be a great asset. When the Supreme King was summoned, a monster of any level could be directly summoned to the field from Horus' hand, no sacrifice required. Not only that, but Horus could also choose any spell from his deck to use. The number of attack points was determined by the combined levels of all of Horus' monsters on the field multiplied by three hundred. Unfortunately, the Supreme King came with a price: it required three sacrifices to summon and took two hundred life points every time Horus ended his turn.

Well, it was only natural for a card that powerful to have drawbacks. If it didn't, it'd be illegal! Horus let out a half-hearted laugh and gathered his cards together before collapsing on his bed and waiting for Cady and Randy to show up.


End file.
